Donald Trump is making headlines as usual with his latest statement during the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian’s landfall in the Bahamas.
What We Know:
- In the wake of Hurricane Dorian’s landfall, the strongest hurricane on record to ever hit the northern Bahamian islands, tens of thousands of people were displaced and are looking to seek refuge in the United States. With the hurricane leaving behind 30+ inches of rain and thousands still missing, their situation is dire.
- During a news conference at the White House on Monday, September 9th, Mark Morgan, Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, stated “We will accept anyone on humanitarian reasons that needs to come here…If your life is in jeopardy and you’re in the Bahamas and you want to get to the United States, you’re going to be allowed to come to the United States, whether you have travel documents or not.”
- However, Trump declared a different form of action saying “We have to be very careful. Everybody needs totally proper documentation because look, the Bahamas had some tremendous problems with people going to the Bahamas that weren’t supposed to be there…I don’t want to allow people that weren’t supposed to be in the Bahamas to come into the United States, including some very bad people and some very bad gang members, and some very, very bad drug dealers. So we’re going to be very, very strong on that.”
- This is not the first time Trump has spoken out negatively against minority groups in the wake of tragedy. While trying to recover from the damage left by Hurricane Maria in 2017, he called the U.S. territory Puerto Rico “one of the most corrupt places on Earth.”
While Trump’s words are problemtic it is important to focus on the 70,000 people in the Bahamas who still need food, water, and medical assistance.
